


Super Penguino: Deathmatch Mode

by Talik_Sanis



Series: Miraculous Crackfics [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrigaminette, Adrigaminette's Harem, Because I Can't Not Write That, Crack, F/M, For the Laughs, Humour, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, Smooth Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Suggestive Themes, Useless Pansexuals, miraculous crack, sexual innuendo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24221752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talik_Sanis/pseuds/Talik_Sanis
Summary: “Hey, Alya, can you teach me how to play Super Penguino?”No. Alya was not ready to teach Marinette how to "play Super Penguino." The real question was: Did Marinette even know what that meant?Cue an awkward lunchtime conversation.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Alya Césaire/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Luka Couffaine, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Series: Miraculous Crackfics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755580
Comments: 42
Kudos: 279





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey, Alya, can you teach me how to play _Super Penguino_?”

Seated, mercifully alone, at one of the many tables in Collège Françoise Dupont's cafeteria, Alya spat out a torrent of apple juice, coughing desperately as she smashed a fist into the tabletop, scattering the mushy, inedible peas that were all that remained of her lunch.

She blinked rapidly, eyes tearing up from the trauma, as she cast her watery gaze on her best friend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who was settling into the seat across from her.

“Uh- sorry, girl,” she mumbled, clearing her throat to alleviate the lingering scratchy sensation and dislodge the last vestiges of tart fluid. “That's not really a game that I think we'd enjoy together.”

“Oh, well then could you at least help me to track down a copy?” Marinette asked absently, scooping up the peas that littered their table and depositing them on Alya's tray. “I can't find it anywhere in the app store, online, or on Steam. It doesn't seem to be very popular.”

“Really?” Alya chuckled weakly before silencing herself by grabbing a hunk of bread from Marinette's tray, shoving it into her mouth and nearly choking on it too. After a desperate fumble with her juice-box and a few painful moments, she continued. “Most people I know have at least tried a _few_ levels.”

“If it's that well-known,” Marinette pondered as she flicked at her own cafeteria peas with a plastic spork, “do you think that they'll ever make a _Super Penguino_ movie, like the silly _Angry Birds_ film?”

“I think that there are a few, uh,” Alya paused and wiggled her fingers, just barely holding back from using “air quotation marks” because that would only lead to worse questions, “ _Super Penguino_ movies out there if you just look in the right places.”

“Oh, are they popular films for couples to see?” Marinette inched closer to her friend, leaning over the remnants of food on her plate. “I know that you always seem to be playing the game with Nino, and Juleka and Rose were talking about it too. Does the game even _have_ a single-payer mode?”

Indulging in “single player _Super Penguino_ ” was still one of Alya's favoured nightly pastimes. It could be rather difficult for Nino to keep up with her when they actually found the time to play. They just had radically different paces when it came to the game, and she, unlike her boyfriend, though he tried his best to learn, knew the right buttons to push at the right times when she was enjoying single player mode.

Let's just say that she knew how to get that little penguin to jump.

“ _Most_ people start out on the single player,” Alya began at a measured pace, “so that they can practice for co-op. That's when the game really comes into its own, you know?”

“Oh, well, I really have to find that game so that I can practice then, especially if it's hard. Is it a difficult game, Alya? Do you die often?”

Oh, this poor innocent child too pure for this world. Thank the lord that Marinette had come to _her_ about “Super Penguino” rather than a boisterous braggart like Kim, who would have used the opportunity to throw out some raunchy jokes, despoiling her friend and likely scarring her for life, or Alix. Heck, the pink-haired girl would have just dumped all pretense and launched into an intimate description of the nitty-gritty “coding” of a game like _Super Penguino_.

Marinette was not ready to be looking under _that_ hood... or any others, for that matter. 

“It can be hard for some people. Nino... _dies_ a lot more often than I do. It's kind of frustrating sometimes.” Alya leaned back, resettling herself on the hard plastic cafeteria bench to shake out the pins-and-needles feeling in her leg. “You, uh, thinking about playing _Super Penguino_ with someone, there, girl?”

Was that still a euphemism or was that literal? And what way would Mari be answering exactly? 

This kind of pretense was not Alya's forte and it was giving her a headache. 

“Adrien wanted Kagami to try out all the classic video games he has in his room. They know I'm great with Mecha Strike,” she offered, raising herself to her full height in her seat, puffed up with pride, “so they asked me to join them. I just thought that I should bring something _new_ to play with them. Kagami and I can't put everything on Adrien's shoulders.”

“They sure seem to invite you along on a lot of their dates, girl,” Alya offered with trepidation, which she tried to conceal. What were that ridiculous boy and his equally oblivious fencer girlfriend doing to her poor baby? Inviting a girl who Kagami knew had a crush on Adrien along on their dates constantly? What a thoughtless, or cruel, _bitch_.

If this kept up, Alya would have to _step_ up. Elite fencer or not, Kagami would still get laid out by a vengeful “Mamma bear Alya.”

“Sure. We have a lot of fun together. Anyways, I _really_ need to practice before I play Super Penguino with Adrien and Kagami because if it's that popular, they've probably tried it once or twice.”

They were both hormonal teenagers with repressive parents and the physiques of a Greek God and Goddess respectively, so, yeah. They'd probably gotten in a game or two along the way.

“Maybe,” Alya conceded, “but _Super Penguino_ doesn't really have a three-player mode, girl. Sorry to tell you that. I- I wouldn't ask them about it.”

“You sure about that, Alya?” Marinette's expression turned slightly sour as she tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I'm pretty creative. I think that I could figure out a way to make it work. At worst, all you'd really have to do is take turns with the tablet.”

“Well, it might not exactly be how the game was designed to be played.”

“That just sounds like a challenge, Alya,” Marinette very nearly growled playfully, her eyes suddenly alight with mirth, “and you know how I feel about those when it comes to video games.”

“Uh- I guess if you can find a copy of the game, maybe you could... figure something out.”

“If it's moddable, then we could get even more than three players involved!” Marinette enthused with an excited clenching of her fists as if in victory.

“That could be really hard, girl,” Alya demurred because she really didn't want Marinette asking anyone about how to mod “ _Super Penguino_ ” when everyone in the school, other than Sunshine and Marinette, was familiar with the euphemism. That would lead to ... weird exchanges. “The game is more fun with two players, but it's really hard to ... synergize. I don't even know what it would be like with three players, let alone more.”

“Come on, Alya! Don't you want to play a game of Deathmatch in _Super Penguino_? I bet that the core gameplay could really work well in a Deathmatch mode.”

“That could be... fun, I guess,” Alya responded hesitantly. "Do you- do you know much about _Super Penguino_ 's gameplay?"

At that, the baker's reply was cut off by the high sonorous knell of the lunch bell, sending the collected students' hearts to the floor by calling them back to their classes.

“Thanks for the chat, Alya,” Marinette said, rising from her seat. “I'll let you know if we find a copy and get three-player _Super Penguino_ working properly.”

“Yeah, girl!” Alya cried with forced enthusiasm, and shot the baker a pair of shaky finger-guns as Marinette walked away and dumped the flotsam on her tray into a nearby trash receptacle.

“You do that,” she finished with what was surely an inaudible mumble.

That girl really was the most innocent little smol bean in the world. At this rate, she might _never_ actually be ready to “learn how to play Super Penguino.” Best to leave her with her fantasy of marrying Adrien Agreste and having Hugo, Emma, and Luis delivered by _stork_.

Slouching forward in her seat, Alya nearly collapsed into the half-empty bowl of pea-mush on her tray, stopping the downward motion of her head just before her face made contact.

At least that was over.

“Hey, Alya.” Marinette's voice drew the redhead back up slightly.

Splaying her hands to either side of the lunch tray, Alya pushed herself into her former position to stare at the girl who had returned and was now standing at her side and leaning over her.

“Just so we're on the same page,” Marinette began as if talking about the recent literature reading for Madam Bustier's class, “you know I was asking if you wanted to join me in the threesome that I plan on having with Adrien and Kagami, right?”

Alya blinked at her several times before shaking her head slowly.

“I wasn't exactly sure, to be honest.”

“Oh,” Marinette hummed with a quizzical look on her face, and she grinned awkwardly while pointing to her friend and then to Adrien in the distance. “Soooo, you want in on that action, or...?”

Alya stared at her, then allowed her gaze to comb over her friend's entire svelte and toned figure before turning her head towards Adrien Agreste. He was tossing his head back and smoothing a hand through his pristine golden locks as he lounged against the cafeteria wall near the exit, his bright, perfect smile dimpling his cheeks with a boyish beauty that was on the cusp of becoming, with the right shift in his posture and disposition, something rakishly masculine.

“...Deathmatch Super Penguino it is.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sabine Cheng overhears her daughter discussing some odd video game titled "Super Penguino."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I had no intention of continuing the scene in the first chapter, but then I had the idea of Sabine overhearing a weird, all-but-incomprehensible conversation between her daughter and three of her friends. Kids these days and their complex video games.

As the hustle of the late afternoon rush at the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie began to calm, Sabine allowed herself the luxury of a short break, travelling to her kitchen in order to gulp down a cool glass of lemon-water. Her burly teddy-bear of a husband nodded in her direction as they switched places and he began to tend to the few lingering customers who were still pondering their selections of baked goods.

“Oh, Snickerdoodle?” Tom called to her from beyond the kitchen wall. “I had some extra sugar cookies that just didn't turn out right. Could you take them up to the kids?”

The plate that awaited her on the counter was chock full of precisely portioned and golden sugar cookies, topped off with intricate patterns of icing. “Didn't turn out right” of course, meant that he had made them specifically for Marinette and her visiting friends to snack on. Silly bear, thinking that he had anyone fooled with _that_ excuse.

Scooping up the plate, Sabine made her way up to her daughter's loft. As she neared the trap door to Marinette's sanctuary and raised a hand to knock, the sound of her daughter's voice reached her.

“Adrien, I keep telling you that no one can double jump the canyon on stage three level four without activating the rocket penguin powerup,” her daughter growled playfully from beyond the hatch, “especially not when Kagami and Alya are scaling the mountain in stage one level one from both sides at the same time.”

 _What on Earth?_ Sabine's hand fell and her face scrunched up in confusion.

"I would bet you a speed run through all of stage eight that you can't do it, Agreste," Alya piped up in support of her friend.

Oh! Of course. Marinette and her friends were arguing playfully over _video games_ of all things.

That was absolutely adorable!

Sabine sagged against the wall, suppressing an audible chuckle to avoid giving herself away and settling her tray against her chest. It was just so childish that she felt herself growing misty-eyed. After all the pressure that Marinette put on herself to succeed, the commissions, the stress surrounding that little harpy, Lila, and her bitter, jealous manipulations and lies, her little baby girl was finally able to recoup some of that lost time – to relax and be silly like she should have had the chance to do when she was fourteen.

"Done and done, Cesaire," Adrien enthused.  
  
"Such a cocky cat," her daughter laughed from above her.

 _It's so good that Marinette has gotten over that stuttering problem._ Still, Sabine couldn't help the twinge of melancholy that pinched her deep in her gut. The blushing and stuttering stage of a first crush wouldn't come again. Her little baby was growing up so fast. Hardly a little baby any more, really. Had it really been four years?  
  
"Oh, I'm cocky alright, and you love it." She could feel the grin in Adrien's voice. Good for him. His father had left him so repressed. “Where would the three of you be without my cockiness?”  
  
"He does have a point, Marinette." That was the quiet and quite respectful Japanese girl that Marinette had introduced to her parents a few months ago: Kagami. "His cockiness is his most appealing feature."

Sabine had thought that the fencer was in need of a confidant, and Marinette really rather seemed to like her. Their friendship was a positive balance for Alya, who was a good girl, but a little too flamboyant for Sabine's more reserved tastes.  
  
"You mean it's his only 'appealing' feature,” Alya snorted, and Sabine shook her head. Such a hotheaded girl. Still, Marinette could use a touch of that confidence. “Without that, we wouldn't be able to push through into worlds five through eight."  
  
"Not true.” Kagami again, and Sabine frowned at the somewhat detached tone. Her emotional responses sometime seemed a little bit... off. “We could play with just the three of us. We would only need to purchase the optional joystick conversion kit."

“I'm feeling so unloved,” Adrien retorted in a grumpy huff.

"Actually,” Marinette corrected. “Alya and I tried that one once without you. It's just not responsive enough."  
  
When had she and Tom bought Marinette an "optional joystick conversion kit?" Her little Mare-Bear must have picked it up with money from her commissions.

“See? You know that you love it,” the lone male intoned deeply, Adrien's voice pitching low.

Sabine shrugged to herself as she rapped her knuckles against the hatch to her daughter's room.

There was a rapid shuffling before the trap door creaked open to reveal Marinette's smiling face, showing slightly too many teeth.  
  
“Oh, Mamma! Can I help you with anything?”

“No, no, dear,” Sabine assured her as she pushed her way into the room. “I just wanted to pass on a plate of cookies that we can't use in the store.”

Adrien lounged languidly on her daughter's bed, but shot up straight at the sight of her and began to rub at the back of his neck.

Tapping away at the tablet held between them, Alya and Kagami rested on her daughter's chaise. If the illustrations that flipped by on the screen were any indication, it seemed as if they were planning something rather complex involving... penguins?

“Hey, missus Cheng,” Alya said without looking up, while Kagami bowed in her direction.

“Madame Cheng,” Adrien began respectfully, a light flush ruddying his face. “Thank you so much for thinking of us.”

Such a polite and respectful young man. Sabine gave him a quick once over to reassess him. Quite handsome too. Now that he was an adult, it was clear that puberty had been quite kind to him, leaving the boyish good looks but allowing him to fill out his dress-shirt quite nicely. If Kagami and Alya weren't here too, Sabine, who had been a young woman herself once not-so-long ago, might have had different feelings about allowing Marinette to keep her hatch closed, but there was safety in numbers. With a fiery Alya and the seemingly level-headed Kagami in the very same room, Marinette wasn't exactly free to do anything foolish.

“You don't need to be so formal, dear,” she said as she set the plate of cookies on Marinette's bedside table. “Sabine is just fine.”

“Okay, Sabine,” Adrien responded somewhat awkwardly as he scooped up a cookie and almost swallowed it whole.

“So, what are you kids up to?” Sabine asked, surveying the room.

“We're planning out our next game of _Super Penguino_ ,” Alya replied immediately as she made a few quick swipes on the tablet she was sharing with Kagami.

“ _Super Pen-guino_?” Sabine mouthed uncertainly. She smoothed her dress to give her hands something to do. What exactly was it that kids did these days? The last video game that Sabine had played was Mecha Strike III because of her daughter's interest, but, before that, Pong. Nothing so ridiculous as _Super Penguino_.

“It is a highly enjoyable game, popular among many our age,” Kagami affirmed.

“Well, how does it play?”

“Oh, it's great!” Alya enthused as she rose to plunder the plate of sugar cookies before throwing her arm around the shoulders of a somewhat flustered Marinette. “Gameplay is different on every level, and my girl here came up with a bunch of ways that all four of us can play together.”

“And all my piano practice has left me with very dexterous fingers,” Adrien added with a slight mumble while enjoying another cookie. “I can pull off moves that these three can't even _believe_.”

“That sounds lovely,” Sabine said with a smile. “You know that Marinette gets her talent with video games from her father.”

“ _Mom_ ,” Marinette whined, making a little shooing gesture with her hand.

“Alright, alright,” Sabine relented with a grin. “I know: no old folks allowed.”

And with that, she was practically shoved out of the room by her frantic daughter. Chuckling as she made her way down the hall, heading back to resume her shift in the bakery, she just made out her daughter's voice.

“You can't just talk about _Super Penguino_ with my mom, guys!” Marinette hissed, Sabine assumed, when she thought that her doting mother was too far away to hear. Kids. “And you, you cocky cat...”

Her voice trailed off as Sabine descended into the kitchen and resumed her duties.

They all seemed good for each other, in Sabine's opinion.

The rest of service flew by, as was often the case. Adrien, Kagami, and Alya departed for their respective homes, while a sulking Marinette joined her for dinner with Tom. To make up for her earlier intrusion, Sabine insisted that she and Tom would take over Marinette's shift on “dish duty” after dinner.

While absently towel-drying a plate that her husband handed to her, Sabine sighed wistfully, staring out her window into the dwindling twilight that lit the Parisian street beyond.

“Penny for your thoughts, Sugar Cookie?” Tom said as he handed her one of the last clean plates.

“Oh, just feeling a little nostalgic, dear.”

“Hm?” Tom intoned with a quirk of his brow.

“Well, Tom,” Sabine hummed. Slightly thirsty, she moved to begin preparing a pot of tea. “I overheard the kids talking about their video games. It makes me think that we should try some of the old ones that we have laying around.”

“Like what?” Tom asked with the excitement of a child. She nearly snorted at his eagerness. Of course he would be enthused about his beloved video games and the chance to share them with her.

“You remember Pong, right?”

"Snickerdoodle,” Tom laughed. “We haven't played pong since before Marinette was born. I don't even know where we'd find a copy."

"Didn't Marinette say that you can download games off the internet?"

"That just seems so impersonal.” Tom shook his head and rummaged through the high shelves of the cupboard that Sabine couldn't reach, looking for a pair of matching mugs. “There was just something about getting familiar with the controls of your own Atari console, but they're vintage. I wouldn't know where to begin looking for it."

"Well,” Sabine dragged out, wrapping her arms around her husband's waist, though they really only made it halfway, and pressing her cheek between his shoulder blades. “I might have a lead on one of those."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Marinette is always raving about the classic video games in Adrien's room. He might be able to find something for us."  
  
"Uh,” Tom began hesitantly as he shifted in Sabine's hold so that he was facing her. “Wouldn't Marinette be upset?"

"From what I understand, they're all quite open about trying new video games or lending them for other people to try."

"If he's willing to help out,” Tom granted and leaned down to nuzzle Sabine's nose with his own. “Then I guess my only question is: do you want to be the ball or the second paddle?"  
  
Sabine thought back to her daughter's (attempted) muffled screams each night that she, Alya, Adrien, and Kagami had their "slumber parties" and Adrien's apparently impressive “cockiness.” 

"Definitely the ball."

Provided Marinette and her friends didn't mind Adrien lending out a video game, after a few rounds of Pong, the rather strapping young man probably wouldn't have any trouble calling her Sabine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No idea how this one will be received. 
> 
> Hope that you had at least a few laughs.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new challenger has appeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what I'm doing. Somebody stop me...

"Hey, Luka!"

On hearing his name, the guitarist, who had been sitting on a park bench in a particularly scenic spot alongside the Seine, ceased running through chord progressions on his guitar and looked up.

There, meandering up along the sparsely populated walkway, was Adrien Agreste. While the model and guitarist had never been particularly close, the boy – or young man judging by the lithe but robust and lean figure that was obvious to Luka's appreciative eye (he was only human ... and pan and a little appreciation never hurt anyone)... Marinette certainly had good taste...

Wait. What was he thinking?

...

Something about the other boy...

Normally, a pleasant hum swirled around the model, his heart-song playful and light yet tinged with a certain melancholic wistfulness, but something had clearly changed in the weeks since they had last seen each other. Now, the melody was a vibrant piano concerto mingling with ... a trio of other instruments in resplendent harmony.

He'd never quite heard anything like that before.

"Hello, Adrien,” Luka greeted, shoving that thought to the side for the moment. “How are you doing?"

"I'm doing really well, actually." The buttery-smooth yet nearly-liquid gold model smile that the blonde sent his way had Luka struggling to maintain his usual warm reserve. It broke ever-so-slightly when the other boy settled next to him on the bench, so close that the citrus spice of _Adrien: The Fragrance_ was thick in his nose, and the heat from Adrien's body became palpable against his side.

Then it grew worse still when the model sent him an entirely unwitting flirty wink that he must have picked up from his job without even knowing how it could affect ... anyone who was at least _slightly_ interested in men.

"Hey, that's great," Luka offered and set his guitar against his knee, bending over it so that he could drum his fingers across its wide body, just under the bridge. "You sound it."

"Well, I've just got so many good friends in my life that every day is wonderful."

"Marinette mentioned that she's been spending a lot of time with you recently." And Luka was not so petty as to feel jealous about that, even if it seemed like Adrien still viewed her as "just a friend" in light of the fact that almost all of that time was shared with Alya and Adrien's girlfriend, Kagami.

"Yeah. We've really connected over videogames, you know?"

"Oh?" He had never been particularly good at video games, so chock up another point in the model's favour.

"Yeah!” There was that childish glee that Luka knew must have captured Marinette's heart. It was... actually kind of adorable. “Have you ever played _Super Penguino_?"

"Isn't that a kids' game?" He might have overheard his sister discuss that game over the phone with Rose at some point, but who could ever take a game with a title like that seriously?

"You'd think so," Adrien agreed with a nod, affirming the suggestion with a motion of his hand, "but the metagame is really complex."

"Oh, uh, okay?" _Metagame_?

Why was Adrien looking at him like... that? There was a little squirming sensation in Luka's stomach, and he fiddled with the tension in his guitar strings to work out some of the restless energy that he felt washing over him as Adrien's heart-song ... warbled?

It happened the moment that he had mentioned Marinette. Hopefully that meant that the other boy was starting to come around to the fact that he liked the girl as much as she did him. It was more important for her to be happy than for her to return Luka's feelings. Though he did have to wonder what that meant for Kagami, Adrien's current girlfriend.

“That's actually what I was hoping to talk to you about. Take a look at this,” Adrien continued, retrieving a cell phone from his pocket and pulling up an apparently complex schematic for some kind of esoteric process that had Luka leaning in to stare, baffled. Scrolling along the screen, properly if obscurely labelled, were complex mathematical formulae involving vectors, volume capacity, and ... rocket fuel consumption for penguins?

_What?_

“What am I looking at here?” Luka inquired. If Adrien wanted help with mathematics, he was going to be sorely disappointed. Much as Luka would have loved to assist, he was capable of nothing more complicated than basic multiplication.

“Well, like I said, the meta for _Super Penguino_ is really challenging, and the girls are good players, so I was thinking that, maybe, I could use some help.”

“How is that part of the metagame?”

“The meta is all about finding the right players with complimentary skill sets.”

“I'm not all that great at video games, though.”

“You don't have to be.” Pausing as he scrolled through the illustrations on his cell phone, Adrien indicated Luka's slightly trembling hands, though the guitarist couldn't for the life of him understand why the focused, thoughtful gaze had him losing control of his digits.

Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that Adrien reached out and took him _by_ the hand, a gentle finger trailing a light tickling pattern over the soft underside of his palm, tingling and exciting, sending waves of subtle pleasure up Luka's arm and leaving him slightly hot on an otherwise pleasant day.

“See, you've got really talented hands, and Marinette's always been really impressed by your music,” Adrien affirmed with another gentle stroke.

Luka's whole body began to shudder as Adrien gazed into his eyes, green meeting light aqua.

This boy was so oblivious that it hurt in more ways than one.

“Uh, okay,” Luka squeezed out because that was all that he could do.

He'd heard of a disaster lesbian, which actually sounded kind of bigoted, but was there such a thing as a disaster pansexual?

Evidently there was.

_Keep it together, Couffaine. Poor sheltered kid has no idea what he's doing._

The amorphous shifting in Adrien's heart-song was testament to that, the notes coming across indistinct and blurry where once they had been a precise medley of various instruments.

His typically laid-back and easy-going nature was not weathering the slow sensual assault that Adrien was unknowingly loosing against the older boy's lower arm, easy, almost inquiring and curious strokes of his palm and surprisingly strong fingers tracing Luka's wrist as the model looked up at him with wide, questioning, and innocent eyes.

“See, Marinette thinks that you could add a-” he twiddled the fingers on his free hand - "musical flourish to some of our games. It might be nice to listen to some new tracks as we play, and who better than you, right?”

“I guess that I could suggest a few things, but wouldn't ... Alya's boyfriend- what was his name?”

“Nino?” Adrien supplied, face scrunching up cutely.

“Right. Wouldn't he be better at that?”

For whatever reason, Adrien scowled.

“Uh, no. That would be kind of odd. I mean, I love him. He's my best friend, and I guess that's why I don't think that his music would really be a fit.”

Weirder and weirder.

“Okay," Luka offered and had to restrain himself from tugging his arm away because the model's smooth motions felt a little too good and it was ugly and unfair of an older and wiser man like Luka to take advantage of someone who was so sheltered and guileless. There was just no way to extract himself without appearing rude. "Should I put together a playlist?”

“Actually, I was thinking that you might bring the music yourself,” Adrien clarified. “See, the girls tend to gang up on me sometimes.” Luka felt a great surging desire to tilt up the other boy's chin and tell him that it would be alright when Adrien's expression fell into something pitiful and he continued, measured and plaintive. “So I just thought that we could use another ... _member_ in our games to help balance out the scales.”

The distant look in Adrien's wide eyes, as if he was caught in the tangle of his thoughts, had Luka's own heart-song flagging. What were those girls doing to the boy? Sure, Marinette could be competitive, from what he had heard, while Alya was abrasive on occasion and Kagami harsh without meaning to be. Together, could they be unfair to the sweet and shy model?

In an effort to settle himself briefly by bending over to lean his guitar against the bench, he froze halfway back to a seated position when Adrien splayed his hand over Luka's chest

“Anyways,” Adrien said and Luka had to rearrange himself slightly when the younger man moved in closer to ef-ing _snuggle_ into his side. “We have all the levels down at this point, but we're thinking about picking up the expansion pack to Super Penguino.”

“Expansion pack?” Luka croaked.

“Yeah. Do you have some free time this afternoon? I would love to try it out with someone before I showed it off to the girls.”

It was then that Luka realized something rather critical.

That strange morphing uncertainty to Adrien's heart-song?

That wasn't doubt or a quest to find his melody.

It was a violin, piano, flute, and cello ... tuning themselves and adjusting to allow for the entrance of a new instrument: a guitar that supplemented the preexisting song.

Together, they made for a queerly attractive tune.

As it turned out, Adrien was exceptionally talented with a joystick while playing _Super Penguino_ , a fact that Luka was forced to admit only a few minutes into their first match in Adrien's room. It left the swaggering blonde, whom Luka now realized had been kept locked up in the Agreste mansion to protect the _world_ and not the Agreste heir himself, with an inflated ego. The swelling of his pride made him all the more brazen in his cocky teasing over the next game, from which Luka emerged as a very sore loser, all the more so after their final match turned the entire affair into a one-sided slaughter in Adrien's favour, ending when his final kill/death ratio hit 3/0.

Adrien did indeed have very strong and very talented fingers when it came to video games. Despite Luka's confidence in his skills as a guitarist, it was obvious that Adrien was far more capable when it came to making sweet music to supplement a match of _Super Penguino_.

"I don't know, Luka," Adrien said with a frown as he started to put away the game. "You tried your best, and you've got a great setup to play, but-” he paused and shook his head sorrowfully before beginning again in a deeply apologetic tone: ”you're just too easy to beat at _Super Penguino_."

Luka could only groan while pressing his face into Adrien's pillow, great heaving pants rocking his body as he tried to settle his breathing after a physically exhausting gaming marathon. Sweat trailed down his throat and chest, soaking into the sheets beneath him, a result of his intense exertions while trying, and failing, to overtake Adrien's penguin.

"I _really_ don't mean to be rude, but I'm worried that I'd have _more_ work on my hands if we ever played with the girls."

_The girls?_

Luka smoothed a strand of blueberry-coloured hair away from his eyes as he lolled over onto his back to watch as Adrien strutted about the room without a hint of embarrassment over the results of their game.

Not that _he_ had anything to be embarrassed about.

"I- uh." Yes. Of course. The girls with whom he ... "played _Super Penguino_."

Luka was not so petty as to feel jealous about that either.

"You know, Adrien," he began slowly, trying to maintain an air of nonchalance which probably would have been more convincing had he not just, well, gotten his butt handed to him at _Super Penguino_ which, he realized, really wasn't a kids' game.

Like, not a kids' game _at all_.

"I think that I could keep up if I just had some practice,” he added, eyes on the ceiling as his face flamed. “And guys play video games together, um, alone, all the time, right?"

At that, Adrien turned to face him while rolling his eyes. His stare lingered on the thoroughly-defeated Luka for a moment in a way that had the older boy's competitive spirit rising to the point that he felt just about ready for another game, before Adrien shrugged and settled in for round four.


End file.
